


collapse (of morality)

by scorpionGrass



Series: you can’t put a price on peace (of mind) [7]
Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Gen, Pre-Sector 7 Plate Collapse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:06:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23459053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scorpionGrass/pseuds/scorpionGrass
Summary: Reeve’s visit to the Department of Administration takes no longer than five minutes.The repercussions would last much longer.
Series: you can’t put a price on peace (of mind) [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1363234
Comments: 4
Kudos: 20





	collapse (of morality)

The manila folder sits on his desk for no longer than two days. Chock full of information about Midgar’s floating structure, with special attention to the nuts and bolts keeping Sector 7 afloat. President Shinra had personally requested that Reeve also deliver a copy of the folder to the infamous Department of Administration.

It’s not until after Shinra’s executive meeting concludes that Reeve considers burning it all. Not that it would matter. The President already has the first copy.

Reeve grimaces as he swipes his keycard to his office. The copied folder sits on his desk, unaware of the damage it could cause in the wrong hands. In the Department of Administration’s hands. Tseng had already been notified that Reeve would be visiting, and if he put it off too long it would only serve to put Reeve on even thinner ice.

Not that they couldn’t get it another way. The information could easily be accessed by any Shin-Ra employee with enough clearance, not to mention the replica of Midgar standing on display on Floor 65 of Shin-Ra HQ that has a concise guide to the structure beside it.

Reeve leans against the door, folds his arms, and stares at the folder.

The folder they need only to mitigate damage to other areas, to make sure the drop was straight and even and would crush the entire slum sector below it. They barely had any intentions of having an evacuation plan set up for the topsiders.

Reeve can only surmise that the PR disaster for them would be mitigated by making AVALANCHE themselves the scapegoat in all of this.

A deep breath and a resigned sigh later, Reeve swipes up the folder and leaves. Tseng would get the information with or without him anyway. Maybe sooner would help with making sure there would be a safe evacuation plan.

It’s wishful thinking, but it’s all he has left.

~

“We’ve been expecting you.”

Tseng sits in his office looking unruffled and calm as always, even with the task set before him. Reeve presses his lips together, knowing he too isn’t innocent in this.

“I have the files the President wished for me to deliver,” Reeve says.

He knows he could’ve sent one of his employees. His secretary, or one of the architectural interns. But he didn’t want it on their conscience. They were innocent in this. As innocent as they could be, working for Shin-Ra. The only company that had any real sway in this world.

“You can leave them on my desk,” Tseng says, standing up. “Let’s walk.”

The elevators take them to Floor 65, where the scale model of Midgar is displayed in the middle. Tseng lets Reeve off first before following behind him, measured steps clacking on tiled floors.

If there is anything to envy about Tseng, it would be his ability to stay composed in even the most turbulent of situations. Reeve wishes he’d been half as composed in that damn executive meeting. He’s still sweating with nerves just thinking about what he’s helping set in motion.

“I built this, you know,” Reeve says with a wry smile, gesturing at the model.

“I’m aware,” Tseng says. “I hear from the President that you were the only exec to have reservations about what’s to happen.”

High clearance plans in low clearance areas. Reeve wants to laugh at it all. As if they wouldn’t be announcing their dreadful plans to the world soon enough, blaming it all on AVALANCHE like they even had the firepower to drop a plate.

Reeve’s not fooled by the extensive explosions that caused the Sector 1 Reactor to go off the way it did. Even combining the kinds of weaponry and explosives that the various sellers under the plate had access to they wouldn’t have been able to produce that kind of destruction, even with volatile mako involved. It was too flashy. He knows how many war machines they keep in the reactors, as “defense systems.” He knows the controls are under lock and key by the President himself. It’s not hard to piece the facts together.

“What’s happening has been in the works for a while, whether I was aware of it or not,” Reeve says, eyes focused on Sector 7, the very target of the President’s insane plan. “I don’t think it matters whether or not I have reservations. I work for Shin-Ra, and am part of all the good and bad it does for the planet, for better or worse.”

He can see Tseng’s calculating smile on the other side of the Midgar model. Reeve has no doubt this is an interrogation, requested by the President himself. To oust a traitor, or to confirm loyalty. Reeve isn’t interested in either.

“So you have no qualms at all?”

Reeve meets Tseng’s gaze. “Do you?”

A moment passes and Tseng doesn’t respond. Reeve continues, “Do you and your Turks have any qualms about condemning an entire sector? Or did you lose your morality when you signed your contracts?”

Tseng’s eyes drop. “We follow orders. There is no room for morality.”

Reeve scowls. “So we’re all cowards,” he says quietly “You’re just the coward with the trigger.”

~

It’s late. Reeve should be in his apartment, attempting and failing to sleep with the day’s events hovering over his conscience. Instead, he stares blankly at his computer, at the cascading documents he’d delivered, clicking through them, mind running through every possibility.

Finally, he takes a deep breath and opens a new document, sliding his keyboard closer and setting his hands over the home row.

The least he can do is draft up a reconstruction plan for when it’s all over.

**Author's Note:**

> that final trailer for the remake thooooo


End file.
